Help Let Ruthelle Vote in November

The good news: Ruthelle Frank, an 84-year-old Wisconsin resident, was able to vote in recent primary elections.

The troubling news: It took multiple lawsuits and 10 months to make it happen. And even though she is on the ballot to be elected in November, she may not even be allowed to place her vote because of issues with her birth certificate and the spelling of her father's last name.

Ruthelle is only one of millions of people who are at risk of losing their right to vote in this November as a result of wide-ranging state-by-state efforts to deny people access to the polls. These state efforts are throwing barriers in the way of people who have cherished their right to vote for decades and making it harder for new voters to register.

Sign the petition urging Attorney General Holder to protect the right to vote.

Letter to

Attorney General of the United StatesEric H. Holder, Jr.

After a surge of voter interest and participation in 2008, a wave of anti-democratic voter suppression laws — designed to disenfranchise huge numbers of voters who are African-American, elderly, students or have disabilities — threatens to keep up to 5 million eligible voters from casting a ballot in 2012.

I am particularly disturbed by the voter ID laws that have now been passed in 31 states, and other voter suppression tactics, such as restrictions on third party registration, proof of citizenship requirements and early voting. These laws do nothing to address the problems that are actually threatening the integrity of the voting process, such as improper purges of voters, voter harassment, and distribution of false information about when and where to vote. Instead, these laws serve to disfranchise eligible voters and, in particular, have a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities, the elderly, low-income individuals, students, and voters with disabilities.

Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote. Please continue to exercise your authority to ensure that voting rights are not jeopardized anywhere in the U.S.